Unofficial news and tips about Google

August 18, 2011

Google Tests a Cleaner Interface

Google started to test a variation of the search interface I mentioned the last month. The experimental interface removes all the icons from the sidebar and the icons for Google +1 and Instant Preview, which are displayed next to the results.

When you mouse over a search result, Google shows a bigger Instant Preview icon in a vertical bar. Mouse over the bar, and you'll a large screenshot of the page, the links to the cached paged and other similar pages and the Google +1 button.

Like the previous variation of the experiment, Google's header and the search options sidebar are sticky, so you'll see them even if you scroll down. It's the perfect interface for implementing infinite scrolling, which is also tested in a separate experiment.

Good to see the annoying +1 buttons disappear from the results list. They add no value IMO, as I don't +1 a page before I even visited it, and it's highly unlikely that many users navigate back to the results page in order to +1 the page.

This looks much, _much_ better. Combine this with infinite scrolling and Google's on to a winner. The +1 buttons are utterly pointless before I've even visited the page, and I always thought the other icons were unnecessary. Nice move - roll it out!

i do not like the result with a large screenshot of the page, it make the search result too compress and not so beautiful, maybe Google should implemented something like a preview picture when people hover long enough on the resulted search ( maybe 2 to 3 seconds)